Artificial
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: The History of Trunks suffers an unfortunate visitor. A boy supposedly long since dead. Will his arrival bring prosperity or misfortune? Will he be able to save this wretched world or will he succumb to it? And why oh why is he so smitten over a beautiful android who couldn't care less about him? Are her feelings real or artificial? NarutoxAndroid 18. Fluff, Gore, Lemons. Two-shot


**A/N: A mere twoshot for a rather odd pairing. Fair warning, this takes place in Future Trunk's timeline, meaning that the characters here are well, hella different and the Androids here are incredibly nasty. Thou hast been warned! This takes place while Future Trunks is away, meddling in the past and such an so forth, which should explain any character discrepancies.**

_"By the pricking of my thumbs...something wicked this way comes..._

_~William Shakespeare_.

**Artificial**

Alone on a deserted island, a lone man sat in a lawn chair and enjoyed a large bowl of ramen. The waves lapped at his bare feet, a silent reminder of the tide that would eventually rise to claim his spon in the sand. He paid it no heed. They were bound to find him here sooner or later. He personally preferred sooner to later, but, then again, who was he to dictate the times? Slurping up his noodles, he cast a glance toward the horizon, where the cities burned in the distance. Where humans huddled in fear and anxiety, silently dreading the moment of their inevitable extinction.

He fiddled with the halo on his head, idly contemplating it, and his arrival here. This realm was a far cry from his home town of Konoha. The people here were weak. Powerless. Just as he'd been a few centuries agon in the Otherworld after his death. Now, he enjoyed his ramen as he watched another explosion rock the coastline; while another plume of smoke trickled up from humanity's dying civilation and into the clouds. He rose, in place, adjusted the white gi he wore, and took a small step forward.

"Jeez," He murmurred pushing a hand through his spiky blond hair, "They're really going at it over there...

It was only, with a practiced effort that he resisted the urge to rush out there and save them, to confront their attackers and make everything alright. That was the instinct of a naieve boy. A green genin, who'd made a mistake like that one too many times. Now, he knew better. Now, he knew to wait. There was no point in wasting energy. He wouldn't endanger their lives for foolish bravado. Besides, he couldn't sense them,_-either of them-_after all. But they were bound to sense him, to notice the giant flare og energy he'd sent out only an hour before. It was rather hard to miss, as was the abandoned island upon which he'd taken residence.

Above him, scrawled in large red capital letters, KAME HOUSE jutted out from the pink walls. The occupants of this particular abode had long since abandoned their home, though he was certain he saw a periscope peek out from the watery depths on occassion. He envied them their safety. They didn't have to risk their lives. They didn't have to fight. He looked up as a tiny black speck appeared on the horizion. He rose and folded lawn chair and table alike, carefully setting both aside, careful to keep the ramen bowl in hand as the speck abruptly grew larger on the horizon.

Much larger.

A raised heel crackled out like a whip, an electric blue blur nearly knocking the bowl of ramen from his hand. He responded in kind, lightly raising his shin to absorb the attack, flinging his attacker up and away. Tremors wracked the earth, rippling out in the ocean beyond. He didn't so much as bat an eyelash as his opponent danced backward in retreat, briefly ascending into the sky above.

She was beautiful for an android. Icy blue eyes the color of winter skies stared down at him as she descended, framed by a curtain of shoulder length blond hair, lofting around her heart-shaped face. Arms crossed over a considerable bosom, sticking up through her shirt and straining against the fabric. Her feet touched the sands as he finished taking her in. She held a neat, trim figure neatly constrained by the sleeved shirt and jeans she wore. She reeked of confidence, and arrogance, of one who was used to taking what they wanted, and destroying those who dared to oppose her regime.

"Well now, what do we have here?" Her voice as low and husky, befitting her figure and frame. "I didn't know someone as handsome as you lived all the way out here in the boonies." She batted her eyelashes up at him as she spoke and he flushed, his mind taking a moment to remind his flustered body that this was an android, not a human being. _Damn but she was convincing though._ He found himself shaking his head, once twice, thrice before he regained control.

Once more , his hand unconciously straying to the chopsticks in his opposite hand, he indulged in his favorite treat; savoring the broth and its rich texture before finally finding his voice.

"You're android eighteen, I take it?"

She arched a slender eyebrow in answerment.

"What have you done with seventeen?"

He blinked.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about." _Good._ If something had inconvenienced one of the androids then this would make things that much easier. Two of them, together, would be problematic. One? One he could handle. A vague sense of unease prickled at the back of his mind however. If something else was indeed strong enough to threaten one of the androids...no. He was probably just imagining things.

"Clever boy." She remarked. "And you are...?"

He smiled back at her.

"Just someone who enjoys the occasional bowl of ramen."

Her lips turned down into a scowl.

"If you're not going to give me your name, I can always _beat_ it out of you."

His eyes flashed coldly as he raised the bowl to his lips once more.

"I'd like to see you try-

#18 slapped the bowl from his hand and into the ocean, noodless and all. He shouted at her in surprise, his name leaving his lips, but it was already too late.

"Its rude to talk with your mouth full, Naruto-kun." she sneered, reveling in the look of horror that flitted across his features. "Not very civilized, either."

For a moment, he gawped at her, his fingers trembling. He reached toward the ocean, as though he might somehow retrieve his fallen treasure by might of mind alone. The choptsticks slipped through his fingers as she looked on, clattering to the sand at their feet. Never in all his years had he expected such a horror to befall him. To be left...ramenless. #18 watched as a myraid of emotion flickered across his face; shock, sorrow, fury and finally...an unsettling numbness.

"That...That was the last bowl." her fellow blond muttered, whiskered cheeks twitching in dismay. "Do you...have any idea...how long it took for me to find that?"

"Excuse me?"

His eyes flared white, power welling up from the earth around him.

_"THAT WAS THE LAST BOWL OF RAMEN IN THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE, YOU STUPID BITCH!"_

_Eighteen blanched._

"Hey, its not like that stuff's good for you anyway-

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Oni! Akuma! Demon! She dare insult the greatness that was ramen?! How dare she! HOW DARE SHE!

_**"Kaioken!"**_ The blond roared, as a red aura engufling his body. Sheathed in crimson, his shaggy hair stood on end. Sparks swarmed from his skin, veins pulsed thickly, muscles bulged. Number Eighteen had only an instant to register comprehend this sudden change before she found herself lifted from her feet. Although she was an android, she could still feel pain. And _kami _did she feel pain. Knuckles greeted her face like an old friend. A very angry old friend. She hurtled backwards, careening through the Kame House like a missile before she finally regained control of her body.

Slapping her palms upon the water, the ocean billowed beneath her feet, spreading out in an invisble ripple. Hovering a mere inch or so above the wave, she regarded the blond with icy blue eyes. He glared right back, his eyes blazing a shade of scintilating scarlet. Raising a hand, he pressed two fingers to his forehead, orange sparks sizzling between the clenched digits. Belatedly, she recognized it, as the same technique the namek had used before she'd killed him. Only, this time, there was no charge time, no delay in action as he released the beam and flung it towards her.

It was also a great deal larger.

Blue eyes bulging in disbelief, #18 slapped the Special Beam Cannon aside as though it were naught but a baubble. It was a mistake. She cried out in pain, her fingers screaming at the contemptible effort. The searing energies continue on past her unabated as her palm came away bleeding and scorched. A small mushroom cloud billowed in the distance, and she hazarded a glance back at it. That was another mistake. A whistle of a movement attracted her attention just in time for a clenched knuckle to find her stomach.

#18 bent double from the blow, hunched over his arm as he held her, in a gross macabre of an embrace. His lips pressed at her ear as though seekingto know her, sending a cold shiver down the android's spine. White hot agony exploded into her solar plexus her jacket smoldering away from her torso as the words of her fellow blond resonated in her mind.

_"Die."_

Hands closed around her hair and pulled. _Hard._ With a shriek, #18 found herself flying forward, hurtling through the air at such speed, she was helpless to slow her descent. Water clapped around her like a god's hand, a tidal wave of pressure pushing down on her as the searing energies forced her to the bottom of the ocean. She hung there for a moment, glaring pale daggers at the surface. Just who on earth was this man? He was strong. Unbelievably strong. And why did he know her? Granted, she struck terror into the hearts of many, men and women alike, but this one was different. He wasn't a thing like those weak saiyans or even that slow namekian she'd slaughtered. This was...interesting. Bubbles trickled toward the surface as she stared upward evermore, a slow smile spreading across her face.

_'My turn, blondie'_ she seethed.

She erupted from the depths of the sea, only to find herself face to face with sea f blinding purple light. A swirl of shadow sizzled within his palm, his knee bent at an odd angle as he took aim at her. Eighteen frowned a moment as the memory came back to her. That pose, that energy...oooh dear.

"Lets see...how did that one go...ah!" Naruto's eyes darkened, even as his hands sheathed themselves in violet wrath. _"Galick Gun!"_ He flung his hands forward, hurling the blast at her. In essence it wasn't really a gun at all. Rather a towering pillar of light, flung parrellel instead of vertical. Even as the streak of blazing magenta tore its way across the horizon #18 was gone. She'd reappeared just in time to watch it tear off harmlessly into space. The damned fool! If that blast had struck the planet they'd be nothing but rubble!

"Not bad." She remarked. "You were worth worth playing with."

"Playtime's over." He hissed back.

"You're only human." She reminded him. "Dr. Gero designed us with that in mind. You can't last forever. _We_ can."

The man regarded her with narrowed eyes.

"Damnit and I was trying so hard to make this day last."

"Wait, what?"

Naruto uttered but two words.

**"Super Kaioken."**

Eighteen didn't even have time to blink. All she felt was the breaking of bones and the cracking of ribs; her body screaming in agony as she sank down to her knees. Naruto stood over her, sparks arcing off his body, lending his form a sinister aura. #18 felt her jaw drop open, mouthing hanging in a small, round O. The blond calmly withdrew his clenched knuckles, and, before the android could've hoped to counter, dropped her with a brutal right hook to the stomach. Once more Eighteen found herself bent double. Once more, she fell against his arm, gasping for breath that would never come. This time, Naruto did not release her.

"What on earth was Piccolo-san talking about?" The blond wondered aloud. "He told me you androids were strong. That this would be an actual challenge. I begged Baba to send me here for one day and she finally lets me go, and what do I find...?" He shook his head as he removed his knuckles from her stomach. "You're weak." His knee shot out like a rocket and into the blonde's chin and, for the first time since they'd met she tried _not_ to scream. She failed miserably as he flung her to the floor. No! She wouldn't give her tormentor the satisfaction of seeing her pain!

"D-Damn you!"

Her fist passed through empty hair.

"You are cold." He hissed back at her, vanishing again. "Cruel. You take what belongs to others and crush it beneath your feet. Unforgiveable. Asbolutely unforgiveable!" Another afterimage faded before her fist, leaving her with her lingering fury as he mocked her. "Though I must admit, you are beautiful, in your own way. Graceful even. There is kindness within you, unlike your twin."

Androids didn't blush, and for this, #18 was grateful. Being an android did nothing to stop her shriek of disbelief however, nor the spinning kick she slung towards him. The blond vanished without a word, leaving her to stew in silence once again as she awaited his inevitable return.

"Come out, damn you!"

_"As you wish."_

He buzzed into view, his body blocking the sun, blue eyes glaring out coldly from behind the blinding light. With a hiss, he swung his fist backwards, an open-palmed slap cracking across her jaw. #18 reeled backwards in disbelief, finger touching the stinging spot on her cheek. A crimson waverocketed out from the tip of his finger and incinerated both the androi's sleeves and much of her jacket, within the dark energy. She stumbled out of the ensuing smoke, scrubbing at her face. Ears ringing, she could only just make out his words, could only just discern the light shining within his fingers.

...me...

The blond was already preparing another technique, his hands cupped around a swell of nightmarishly bright light.

_...ha!"_

The blue _wave _roared forward and tore against Eighteen's body. The attack had been too close for her to block, much less avoid; she had no choice but to take the strike directly to her chest. She flew back in agony as the bright wave ripped at her face and chest, her _clothes _burning away from her flesh. The blast seemed to last for aeons before blowing past her as gravity took over, his body spiraling towards the ground limply. She hit the sand with a thud, her limbs trembling slightly as her attacker descended after her. She immediately struggled to rise, propping herself up onto her elbows and forcing herself up from her back. The tattered scrap of her jacket fell open, exposing a bare breast. Had she been human, she would've flushed with shame. As it was, she offered only an angry grunt as she pushed her aching frame into a sitting position.

Naruto appeared before her with a buzz, immediately slamming his hands down upon her shoulders. Eighteen growled in rage and pain and frustration as the blond pinned her back against the sandy beach floor. Naruto looked down at her with blazing blue eyes, his red orbs fading, left completely calm in the face of the android's fury.

"Such a shame." He muttered, tilting her chin upward towards him. "You really are beautiful, ya know?" His eyes narrowed as distinct humming reached his ears. "But looks_...can be deceiving!"_ He faded from existence just as the android opened her hand, revealing the swirling discus of destructive energy tucked within. She hrust her palm outward, and subsuquently obliterated what little remained of the Kame House. Splinters wood and tinder alike, flew from the debris, raining down from the sky and onto their heads.

Tucking one arm under the ruined remnants of her shirt, Eighteen furtively scanned the horizon for any sign of the insufferable blond.

"Now that wasn't very nice." he sighed, flickering into form only just behind her. "Someone used to live there. But I suppose wanton destruction is sort of a trademark with you Androids, hmm?"

Without warning the blond lunged forward and into the darkness and caught Eighteen's throat in his grasp. Only the reinforced structure of her design kept her windpipe from being crushed in an instant. Not that she needed to breathe, mind you. _Kaioken_ bursting about his body once more Naruto slammed the android into the earth hard enough to dash anyon'es brains out. Not for the first time, #18 cursed her creator's brilliance in that regard. Because her brains were _not_ dashed out and she very much felt every bit of his. His bare fists pounded on her face with unbelievable force, blow after blow smashing down like a jackhammer. Concussed and helpless, the android could only raise her arms in a feeble guard and hope that her body wouldn't give out.

It did not.

"Stubborn woman." He hissed down at her, retracting a bruised fist. "You really are hard-headed, ya know? You almost remind me of Ino." He leanded back abruptly, stradling her. She leered up at him, startled by this sudden affront on his part, wary and confused.

"Why haven't you killed me?"

"My time's about up." He answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Anymore and I'll disappear."

She was abruptly aware of the halo on his head. Did he seem...dim, all of a sudden? Almost transparent, perhaps? Even as she looked on his form flickered wavering like a bad tv image flecked with static. He utterred a small sigh and reached forward. For her.

"There's something I've been wanting to do, though."too

His hand tilted her chin upwards to meet his and her eyes bulged for the last time as his mouth captured hers in a kiss. His lips were soft and warm and gentle while hers were stiff and cruel and cold. He was everything she was not; living, breathing, existing, even in death.. While she, once human but now no longer. She clung to this sick parody of life, half-human and half-machine, torn between two world all the while unable to exist in either. She hated him. Loathed him. He was her first defeat, and she wanted nothing more than to kill him. And yet here, with her shell stripped away, with her body naked beneath him, she could not. Eighteen lost a moment of control as he pulled away, leaving her weak with want and need. She wanted more. Needed more. A small part of her_-the human part-_suddenly _ached_ for comfort. For anything. Anything at all.

For touch; her fingers twining in his hair when he tried to pull away. Eighteen dragged him back to her, her tongue dancing in his mouth when he opened it to protest. His fingers flicked the tip of her breast and even iin the heat of the warm afternoon, she shivered. His every touch reminded her of her days as a human, before Dr. Gero had kindapped her and made her an almost unfeeling machine. She could still feel pain, could hold a conversation, have emotions, but nothing more. She'd never have a child, never know the true warmth of intimacy, never be normal.

So she'd indulged in destrtuction. Laying waste to countless towns and cities, picking off those who rose to oppose her, one by one by one. It was fun, for awhile. They all died at their hands, at the hands of her and her brother, gutted and left to rot. Until there was only that strange boy with the sword left, and then one day he too was gone, though to where she knew not. Then it was only them, only her, and seventeen. They'd made light of the situation, delighting in target practice and the like. But now seventeen was gone, too. He'd been missing for nearly a week now, and she hadn't been able to find him. Naturally she'd demanded answers from everyone, and naturally, she'd gotten nothing. Now this strange, blond-haired boy she'd been battle a minute ago was kissing her and she could feel him fading and when he faded she would be alone, and once she was alone she'd be lonelyandifshewaslonelythens hedbesosad...

Words and thought blurred together until she finally recognized the warm moistness on her cheeks for what it was. Tears. Could androids cry? Were they capable of such a feat? #18, didn't know the answer, but neither could she deny the tears trailing down her face. She released him, allowed him to look at her, allowed his eyes to widen.

"Aw, shit." Naruto swore. "This is awkward."

Scratching the back of his head he fidgeted beneath her sobs a moment longer before reaching forward.

"Don't cry." He soothed. "C'mere-

_"Greetings, my friends."_

Eighteen jerked back as if she'd been _burned._ Unbidden, her instinct_-did she even still have one?-_bid her to run, to hide, to get as far away from this voice as humanely possible. Because as she turned, she watched the life leave the eyes of her fellow blond. She followed his gaze and found herself staring at a monster straight out of a horror novel.

"What on earth...?"

Green and chitinous and covered in armor, the creature was a horrific sight to behold. Light blue eyes contemplated them cooly, a smug smile adjourning its thick, misshapen lips. An equally thick_-though by no means less hideous-_slender tail stretched behind its back, twitching idly as the man-made-monster looked over them. Booted feet clicked harshly across the sands as it stalked toward them, taking each step with a measured stride that bespoke of infinite arrogance. An awful power oozed from its every power, a power that, until now, had been suppressed. She skittered backward like a drunken crab, hiding behind Naruto. The blond gaped a moment longer before pulling himself upright.

He stood woodenly, not taking enough care, the beginnings of a red aura flickering around his fading form. The creature saw him. Smiled.

"Ah...Naruto..." Its oily voice oozed out at them as it approached, "So kind of you to lead me to Eighteen."

"The fuck're you?" Naruto frowned, winced as his form lost corpereality. "And how do you know my name?" Eighteen exchanged a glance between the two.

_I've got a bad feeling about this..._

"My, how incredibly _rude_ of me!" The creature exclaimed, pausing abruptly. "I do believe I've forgotten to introduce myself." Performing a curt bow with a hand across its chest, those eyes never left them, not even for a moment, "My name is Cell." Impossibly its grin grew, revoltingly. "And I've come to absorb Android Eighteen, just as I have Seventeen." Naruto blanched, despite himself. He held no love for the androids but even so, to suffer such a fate...that was why Seventeen hadn't shown up. His gaze cut across to Eighteen, her own eyes wide with rage and disbelief.

"Y-You monster!" she took half a step backward. "How dare you do such a thing to Seventeen! You...You killed him!"

"On the contrary." Cell admonished airily. "He is now part of a greater being, a greater whole! As you too, will be soon be."

"Stay away from me!"

Cell cackled harshly.

"We were meant to be together Eighteen, why resist your destiny?"

"I don't want anything to do with you!"

"It matters not! You cannot escape!"

"Ah...hello?" Naruto waved a hand. "Anyone notice I'm still standing here? Right here? No?" He clenched the fingers of his hand, revealing it to still be semisolid. Solid enough to throw a punch. Certainly solid enough to knock Cell back half a pace. Nothing more. The bio-android grinned maliciously, utterly unaffected by the blow.

"Wha-?"

"How nice of you to exhaust yourself before my arrival." Clutching the blonde's wrist, and taking the hand away from his face Dr. Gero's greatest creation returned the favor _tenfold _a green-skinned fist colliding with the blonde's jaw. "This should be no trouble now." Cell's grin grew as he reached down for the blond. "No trouble at all." Eighteen edged backward as the monstrosity hoisted her fellow blond high, dangling his prone form a foot into the hair even as her own body screamed at her to retreat.

"How did you-

Cell all but oozed arrogance.

"Oh, yes, Dr. Gero learned a great deal about you and your kind. You inhabited this pitiful planet before all these filthy humans, long ago. Such a shame we weren't able to extract any useful DNA from the remains." His talk grew to mammoth proportion, swelling in size. "Allow me to correct that mistake." Blue eyes flashed with fire at the sight of the ghastly appendage, at the implications of what would be done to him. Eighteen could only look on in horror as the semi-perfect android reveled in his victory, as Naruto struggled to break free.

"Don't you dare stick with that fucking tail!" The blond roared, thrashing in the fiend's grip. "I'll turn you inside out!"

"Please." Cell scoffed, lowering his tail toward the whiskered blond. "You'll do no such thing. You're nearly out of energy. Now be a good boy and join me in perfection."

"You hideous freak, i'll never join you...just looking at that slimy, shriveled up face of yours just makes me wanna puke!"

"Such harsh words...play nice now, after all this is about to be your face too...

"Sonova...**Kaioken!"**

_"What?!"_

Cell grunted as the blonde's body burst into unholy radiance, as the back of his head slammed into his face, pupling his nose. Wait a second. Did he even have a nose? He blinked in surprise, more surprise than stunned by the revelation. He barely even felt it, until another fist cracked across his jaw, the suddeness of the blow staggering him. Eighteen! How dare she strike him! How dare she strike the face of soon-to-be perfection! Ire at her and the feeble struggles of her fellow blond, consumed him.

_"Enough!"_

"It's enough when I say it is!" His gaze snapped upward toward the former, just in time to reconize crossed hands and closed eyes. A body positioned against the sun. _Oooh_ that just wasn't fair! Before he could think to close his eyes, the sun itself flared with heavenly radiance, forcing him to squint against it.

"Solar Flare!"

White hot fury burned the world white

Cell's last sight was that of the blond slumping to the sands, of #18 reaching down for him, securing him over her shoulder. He feebly pressed two fingers to his forehead, eyes closing in weak concentration even as the last of his form faded. Then everything was bright. So bright. Too bright. Much too bright! Cell couldn't see! Screaming, his fury piquing, he reached for where they ought to be, and succeeded only in seizing a fistful of hair. Then they were gone, slipping through his fingers even as his finges closed around empty air. His blinded eyes shrieked mindless obscenities at him. No! He wouldn't fail her! Not when he was so close! Not when-

When at last he recovered his senses they were gone...

...but to where?

**A/N: Aaaaaaand cut. Hope you liked it! Will Naruto escape from Cell? Will Eighteen be absorbed?! Will this story be updated?! Jk, it only has one more chapter, so the answer is yes, to that one at the very least. I'm off to work now and I look forward to your reviews, and hope you liked so...**

**...REVIEW, WOULD YOU KINDLY?**

**R&R! =D**


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